1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steering apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A shock-absorbing steering column device disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 5-75057 (JP 5-75057 U) includes a support bracket that supports a steering column on a vehicle body. In the support bracket, a lift bracket welded to a lower surface of an intermediate portion of the steering column is held between a pair of right and left support walls. A circular hole is formed in each of the right and left side walls of the lift bracket, and an elongate hole that is long in the up-down direction is formed in each of portions of the support walls, which correspond to the respective circular holes. An adjustment bolt is inserted from one side of the holes to the other side. A rear end portion of an energy absorbing member is fitted to an outer surface of a portion of an intermediate portion of the adjustment bolt, the portion being present inside the lift bracket. In the energy absorbing member, plural ring portions are connected in series in the front-rear direction by connecting portions. Thus, the entire energy absorbing member has a corrugated shape. The size of the plural ring portions in the width direction gradually changes so as to increase toward the ring portion at the rear end and decrease toward the ring portion at the front end.
In the shock-absorbing steering column device described in JP 5-75057 U, the size of the ring portions of the energy absorbing member in the width direction (the amplitude in the corrugated shape of the energy absorbing member) is changed so that the rigidity of the energy absorbing member is partially changed. Thus, a collision load absorbed by the energy absorbing member at the time of a secondary collision and an amount of deformation of the energy absorbing member are adjusted. In this case, in order to perform the adjustment, it is necessary to greatly change the entire shape of the energy absorbing member depending on the conditions of the secondary collision. Since the space in which the energy absorbing member is provided in the steering column device is limited, the structure of the energy absorbing member is required to be as small as possible.